real-life adventure

Two Memoirs

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Ingrained: The Making of a Craftsman by Callum Robinson

This is a compelling memoir by a Scottish furniture maker and his wife Marisa, an architectural designer. They run a business making high end products for commercial showrooms, and have a huge job get cancelled at the last minute. Going back to his roots, Callum visits woodlots and gets to work in the workshop, to make custom furniture. Callum and Marisa have three full-time craftsmen to keep in work. They open a small store to display their work in Linlithgow. Callum even asks his dad, David, who taught him the craft, for help. Callum and the guys make beautiful and very expensive furniture, then need to find people who will love and then buy their work, or commission new pieces. I have had some relatives who enjoyed working with wood, but nothing large, and have no personal experience other than holding boards and fetching tools, but this book made me appreciate the challenges and the high level of craft that go into making beautiful wood furniture.

Ghost Town Living: Mining for Purpose and Chasing Dreams at the Edge of Death Valley by Brent Underwood

This remarkable memoir is set in the 2020s. Brent has a hostel in Austin, Texas, and his family lives in Florida. Somehow, with other financial backers, he buys a ghost town named Cerro Gordo, elevation 8500 feet, four hours from Los Angeles on the edge of Death Valley. Cerro Gordo is at the end of a terrible steep, winding road, and has no running water, but it does has a view of Mt. Whitney as well as Death Valley—the highest and lowest places in the continental United States. The town grew up around a mine, where silver, nickel, and lead were found, and Brent finds a bunch of old buildings still standing, including a hotel and a bunkhouse. There are petroglyphs and an ancient bristlecone pine nearby.

Brent, with some locals and many, many volunteers, must figure out how to explore the area safely, restore some of the buildings, and find a way to get water to the town. He also has some health challenges, partly from stress and overwork, but gains perspective from his friend Tip, who’s nearing the end of his life and loves to spend time in Cerro Gordo. I learned that the author narrated the audiobook version in the quietest place he could find: a cozy alcove in the mine. Compelling reading that almost makes me want to visit Cerro Gordo and Death Valley.

Brenda

A Walk in the Park

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A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon by Kevin Fedarko

Fedarko, inspired by a book his dad gave him, thought he’d explore the Grand Canyon by river. Interning with a river tour company, he only became skilled enough to row a supply raft which hauled trash. He learned to love writing about the canyon and other wilderness areas, traveling with National Geographic photographer Pete McBride.

At McBride’s suggestion, they embarked on an end-to-end traverse inside the Grand Canyon from east to west, in several different expeditions. For their first section, an experienced group of canyon explorers welcomes them for 12 days—they don’t even last a full week. Their backpacks are way too heavy and disorganized and they didn’t prepare for all the off-trail walking, hiking, climbing, or rappelling among the many layers of rock. Daily, there is the challenge of reaching a safe camping spot before dark, in case of flash floods, and always being on the lookout for the next source of water, however tiny. Then there’s the need to consume massive amounts of calories and taking care of their feet.

Through the generosity of more experienced hikers, Kevin and Pete prepared for their next venture into the canyon, with the support of still others caching their resupply buckets and driving them to and from the canyon’s rim. Gradually they make their way west, with breaks to plan the next hike or for Kevin to visit his ailing father. This story is told with much more depth than many other real-life adventures, including lots of the history and prehistory of the canyon and the people who lived there and the artifacts they left. They met with members of the Navajo and Havasupai tribes, and Fedarko relates both sides of the recent influx of thousands of tourists from Las Vegas visiting the western Grand Canyon by helicopter.

The stunning beauty of the inner canyon is well described, making readers understand the appeal of this often extremely hot and always challenging journey, which made a huge impact on the author. Peter McBride has published a book of Grand Canyon photographs and there is a National Geographic documentary about their journey, Into the Grand Canyon, neither of which I’ve seen, yet. Many photographs by McBride are included in A Walk in the Park. This is a memorable and enjoyable read for those who enjoy armchair travel or real-life adventure tales.

Brenda

Mountains of Fire

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Mountains of Fire: The Menace, Meaning, and Magic of Volcanoes by Clive Oppenheimer

I was fascinated by this compelling mix of science, history, volcanoes, and real-life adventure. Unlike other books about volcanoes, only part of this one focuses on disastrous volcanic eruptions. The author, a professor of volcanology at the University of Cambridge, learns and shares about the challenges of timing an evacuation order, which is very costly, especially since a volcano could erupt off and on for more than a year. He also shares that volcanoes add to their environment; they’re not just destructive. The volcanoes even seem to have different personalities.

Clive has explored volcanoes in Antarctica, the Sahara Desert, North Korea, the Mediterranean and the Caribbean, and Iceland, and gives a good sense of place during each expedition, the instruments used to measure volcanic gases and how they’ve changed (his specialty). Repeated visits to volcanoes in North Korea and Antarctica are especially meaningful to him. When younger and less experienced, he took some risks that he learned from. Historical expeditions to volcanoes are described, as well as volcanoes in myth and legend. Prehistoric tools found near volcanoes, especially those made from volcanic obsidian, intrigue him.

This is a captivating and engaging study of volcanoes, and the author clearly wants to share the joy and wonder of his work. For glimpses of the sights and sounds of several volcanoes, see The Living Earth, a short unnarrated documentary Clive made in 2022, here.

Brenda